1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to computer network, and more particularly to a computer network with a transmission layer and an Internet layer but without a network access layer shared between computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ordinarily, a computer system is connected to a server via an Ethernet. Basically, the connection between the computer and the server may be a one-to-one connection or one-to-multiple connection. Referring to FIG. 1A, a schematic diagram of a computer system 120 and a server 110 with a one-to-one connection is shown. Referring to FIG. 1B, a schematic diagram of a plurality of computer systems 182, 184, and 186 and a server 160 under a one-to-multiple connection is shown. A network switch 170 delivers network packets sent between the computer systems 182, 184, and 186 and the server 160.
Because the computer system, the server, and the network switch respectively need a network adapter for transmitting/receiving network packets to/from a network connection, the performance of a network access layer of the network adapter is thus becoming the bottleneck limiting the data transmission rate. In addition, the data transmission rate is also limited to the lowest data transmission/receiving rate because two transmission terminals will follow the same transmission rate to exchange network packets. For example, if the server 110 shown in FIG. 1A has a data transmission/receiving rate of 10 GB/s, and the computer 120 has a data transmission/receiving rate of 10 MB/s, the network connection between the server 110 and the computer 120 will follow a data transmission/receiving rate of 10 MB/s. Similarly, if the server 160 and network switch 170 in FIG. 1B both have a 10 GB/s data transmission/receiving rate, and the computer 182 has a 10 MB/s data transmission/receiving rate, the network connection between the server 160 and the computer 182 will thus have a data transmission/receiving rate of 10 MB/s. Obviously, the network transmission rate will be limited by the network adapter which owns the lowest transmission rate among network adapters in the network connection. Practically, the total transmission rate will be lower than the aforementioned because there is additional time-cost for packet error detections.
Since current network data transmission must comply with specifications of the TCP/IP standard, a data transmitter must execute a software application to encapsulate data as network packets according to the TCP/IP model (comprising an internet layer, a transport layer, and an application layer which are all above the network access layer), and send the encapsulated packets to a data receiver via the network access layer. After the encapsulated packets are received, the data receiver then decapsulates the encapsulated packets to recover data by following the TCP/IP standard. An OSI model comprises a physical layer, a data-link layer, an Internet layer, a transport layer, a session layer, a presentation layer, and an application layer is also employed in modern network connections. According to the TCP/IP model, the application layer, the presentation layer, and the session layer of the OSI model are combined as an application layer of the TCP/IP model, and the physical layer and the data link layer of the OSI model are combined as a network access layer of the TCP/IP model.
Referring to FIG. 2, a schematic diagram of network adapters 210 and 250 on two terminals of a network connection is shown. A system A is connected to an Ethernet cable 260 via a network adapter 210, and a system B is connected to the Ethernet cable 260 via a network adapter 250. When the system A wants to transmit data to the system B, the network adapter 210 receives data from the system A and encapsulate data as packets with the definitions of the application layer 221, the transport layer 222, the Internet layer 223, and the network access layer 224, and then transmits the packets to the Ethernet cable 260 via the transmission terminal Tx. After the network adapter 250 receives the encapsulated packets from the Ethernet cable 260 via a receiving terminal Rx, the encapsulated packets are then recovered as data in the system B by performing sequential decapsulation operations by following the definitions of the network access layer 274, the Internet layer 273, the transport layer 272, and the application layer 271.
The network structure shown in FIG. 2 has been broadly used in modern network transmission systems. However, such a structure is becoming inefficiency for cloud computing or wireless communication base stations/server rooms because those servers therein are requested to provide more and more services. Usually, a conventional server comprises a main system and at least one subsystem, and the main system and the subsystem are computer systems which independently operate. After a request from a client is received, the main system may assign one of the subsystems to manipulate this client request according to service type. For example, the main system 160 shown in FIG. 1B is connected to the subsystems 182, 184, and 186 via the Ethernet. After a client request is received by the main system 160, the client request is processed by the subsystems 182, 184, or 186, and the processed data generated by the subsystems 182, 184, or 186 are fed back to the main system 160 via the Ethernet. As aforementioned, the transmission rate and error detection operations of the network access layer affect the system efficiency, and a lot of packet encapsulation and decapsulation operations performed within the neighboring main system and subsystems significantly cause delays to the transmission rate of the entire system. Thus, a new network adapter design is needed to increase the data transmission rate of a network connection.